拔

Phono-semantic compound:

手 (hand radical) – semantic, indicating an action with the hand.

犮 (to run, vigorous movement) – phonetic element.

Originally depicting the act of pulling something out forcefully by hand, then extended to notions of removing, surpassing, or excelling.

Semantic range:

- to pull out, extract (hair, roots, weapons, etc.);

- to withdraw or remove (troops, people, obstacles);

- to select, promote (拔擢 – to single out, elevate);

- to excel, to stand out;

- vigorous, fast, flourishing.

拔出 (발출) - to pull out, extract

拔除 (발제) - to remove, eliminate

拔擢 (발탁) - to promote, to single out

抜群 (발군) - outstanding, exceptional

開拔 (개발) - to set out, withdraw troops

In modern Chinese, also appears in metaphorical contexts like 拔尖 (“to be outstanding, top-level”).

In traditional Chinese and Korean scripts, the bottom right component of 犮 is written 乂 instead of 又 (as found in the Kangxi dictionary).

In simplified Chinese and Vietnamese scripts, the bottom right component of 犮 is written 又 (友 with a dot on the top right corner). Due to Han unification, both traditional and simplified forms are encoded under the same codepoint. A CJK compatibility ideograph (U +2F8B6) exists corresponding to this form.

In Japanese, the right component 犮 is simplified to 友 instead, giving 抜 (U +629C).